• Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I imagine this as a system that uses spare renewable energy like solar to generate gas that can be used to smooth the curve that is a renewable power source. It’s real value is that it reduces infrastructure needs, allowing its use in remote environments. But it does add a lot of additional failure points.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    remember plastoline? that method of relatively easily transforming plastic waste into gasoline.

    good or not, worthwhile or not, i don’t think tech like this will take off when the oil industry makes so much money from drilling and fracking for that same gas.

    • tyler@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      It’s not worse. It’s carbon neutral (as long as the energy source is renewable like the sun). Any carbon it takes in will be released exactly back to where it was. It’s a much much better option than digging up oil.

      On top of that, there are currently no likely possibilities of replacing gasoline for things like planes. So replacing their gas with carbon neutral gas will improve the situation by 100%.

      • cmhe@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Well, it shouldn’t be carbon neutral… It should used to get carbon out of the atmosphere and into a less damaging substance.

        Carbon capture does not replace getting rid of our dependency on burning fossil fuels.

        We wouldn’t get back the same amount that we are burning anyway. So this approach is worse, because dumb people think it would save us, without us changing the way we produce energy.

        It is worse, because it is a distraction from actually doing something.

        • Railcar8095@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Until we get rid of the necessity for gasoline, this is better than extracting new fossil fuels and might be better than biofuels produced far away.

          Also, I don’t think any form of carbon capture from atmosphere is realistic at scale to reduce CO2. You need atv least as much energy as we are burning just to keep up, and that’s assuming 100% efficiency which is impossible. Focusing on reducing new CO2 emitted seems more effective

      • B-TR3E@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        There is no such thing as “carbon neutral”. Nor is there a problem with carbon. You’re talking about carbon dioxide which is as close to carbon as table salt is to chlorine.

        • B-TR3E@feddit.org
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          2 days ago

          You can vote me down as much as you want. You still have no clue of chemistry - or anything else you’re babbling about. Morons.

          • tyler@programming.dev
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            2 days ago

            How about you go argue with the scientists calling it carbon neutral. My wife literally works in the field. It’s called carbon neutral.

  • fubarx@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    It takes twice as much electrical energy to produce energy in the form of gasoline.

    We lose money on every sale, but make it up on volume!

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      What’s the alternative? Turning down production when demand is lower than supply or try to out it into batteries.

      So you can either do nothing, or use the capacity you’d otherwise waste. Then it comes down to which is a better / cheaper storage method: building batteries, or something that turns that extra power I to some that can be easily stored/used later.